The New Year That Never Came

The New Year That Never Came (Anul Nou care n-a fost, 2024) is a Romanian tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM. Bucharest, the final days of 1989: the Ceaușescu regime has only hours left, though no one in the city yet knows it.

Across a single day, six lives brush against one another. Students rehearse a stinging on-stage jab at the government, state TV crews polish a glossy New Year's tribute to the leader, and behind apartment doors families argue in whispers, eyeing the phone for bugs. Small fears and quiet compromises add up to a country one spark from going off.

Bogdan Mureșanu built his first feature from short, almost farcical episodes and tuned them all to a single nerve. It picked up the top prize in the Orizzonti competition at Venice 2024. The effect is funny and uneasy at once: we know how that December ends, and the characters don't. Stream The New Year That Never Came online on iFILM.